Medibank Overseas Student Health Cover

Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) is health cover for overseas students who are studying in Australia. It is part of your student visa requirements and pays for your medical treatment if you fall ill or have an accident while you are in Australia.

Who's it for?

The Australian Government requires all overseas students here on a student visa (subclass 500) to have adequate hospital and medical cover (OSHC) for the duration of their stay in Australia. This applies regardless of whether you are applying for a student visa, already have one or are on a bridging visa while waiting to extend your student visa.

Any family members staying with you in Australia, including your spouse and any children under 18 years of age, must also have adequate health cover while they are here. Note that overseas student health cover is not quite the same as overseas visitors health cover, which is a broader category. Medibank offers some OVHC policies as well.

What are the different cover options?

Medibank OSHC meets your student visa health insurance requirements and helps towards the cost of your hospital and medical treatment if you are ill or injured. It provides cover for all types of student situations including Singles, Couples, Families and Single Parents.

These covers are flexible, allowing you to change from one to another as your situation changes. For example, if you want to add your partner to your cover, Medibank OSHC allows you to do so easily by switching from a Single to a Couples policy. Similarly, if you wish to add a dependent child, you can switch to a Family or Single Parent policy any time within two months, without having to serve any additional waiting periods.

Medibank OSHC offers a choice of Essentials and Comprehensive cover. Both levels of cover include Hospital, Medical, Pharmacy and Ambulance services, but Comprehensive cover also provides a higher Pharmacy limit than any other OSHC product.

Medibank overseas student health cover

• Essentials OSHC. Meets student visa requirements plus delivers an important level of cover and a range of additional benefits.
• Comprehensive OSHC. A specialised level of cover only available through certain schools and universities. Contact your educational institution to learn more.

Treatments

When you take out health cover, you can expect to find the following treatments covered by Medibank. You should always check for limits and waiting periods:

Hospital

Medical

• Outpatient treatment by a GP (outside of hospital)
• Outpatient treatment by a specialist (outside of hospital).
• Medication prescribed by a GP or specialist (outside of hospital)
• Access to health support services such as a registered nurse, counselling services, interpreter services, emergency legal advice, travel document assistance and family and friends message service.

Limitations

There are a few Limitations and exclusions that apply to Medibank OSHC. These include;

• Certain students may not need OSHC (e.g. Norwegian students can be covered by the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme, Swedish students by Kammarkollegiet and Belgian students by the Reciprocal Health Care Agreement (RHCA) between Belgium and Australia).
• Comprehensive Medibank OSHC is only available through selected schools and universities.
• Cover does not include extended family such as parents, grandparents, siblings and uncles and aunts.
• Fertility treatment is not covered by Essentials or Comprehensive cover.
• Waiting periods apply in some cases (starting from the date you arrive in Australia or become a member, whichever occurs later).
• No cover for cosmetic surgery, services not covered by Medicare, dental or podiatry surgical procedures, treatment for a child over 18 years old or medical treatments performed outside of Australia.
• If you take out a policy and then decide to cancel, you will only receive a refund if it is within the 30-day cooling off period and only if you have not made any claims on your policy.

How to find a Medibank OSHC provider

A Medibank OSHC direct billing provider is a medical practitioner who has an agreement with Medibank and sends the bill directly to them, meaning little or no upfront payment for you at the time of your appointment.

To find your nearest OSHC provider, follow this link and enter your address or location in the box provided.

How to make a claim

Claiming is easy with Medibank OSHC and your options include:

Medibank OSHC members have the following claims options:

• Online. Medibank Online Member Services
• App. Medibank OSHC App
• Phone. 134 148
• In-store. Medibank store locations
• On campus. Selected universities
• Direct Billing. Members choice network

Written by

Tim Bennett

Insurance expert

Tim Bennett is a Finder insurance & utilities expert. For over 10 years he's reported on news, politics, finance and other topics as a journalist and radio presenter. Tim's roles have included radio news reader and breakfast at the ABC, news producer for SBS and producer for Fairfax Media. Tim regularly appears as a health insurance expert on programs like Sunrise and SBS news, as well as in the Australian, The Daily Telegraph, The Courier Mail and more. See full bio

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